The Metropolitan Museum houses a world-renowned complex of scientific research and conservation facilities, each of which serves as a training ground for conservators from around the world. Three major conservation areas—Objects Conservation, Paintings Conservation, and Works on Paper/Photography Conservation—are supported by and named for the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. In addition, the Museum maintains specialized studios for Asian art, costume, and book conservation.
The Department of Scientific Research, a core group of scientists who collaborate with curators and conservators throughout the Museum, is responsible for investigating the material aspects of works of art in the Museum's collections. Scientists in the department cooperate with conservators and curators in studying, preserving, and conserving works, and also pursue innovative research in analytical techniques, preventive conservation, and treatment methodologies.
More than thirty professional object conservators and conservation preparators conduct their work in laboratories equipped for a variety of analytical and investigative methods, including X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet-fluorescence microscopy, metallography, and radiography.
The painting conservators support many different facets of the institution's activities, checking hundreds of paintings for loan and taking responsibility for many hundreds more that arrive at the Museum as honored guests to be part of temporary exhibitions and displays.
The Paper Conservation Department is dedicated to the preservation, technical analysis, and research of works of art on paper, parchment, and related materials from all periods and cultures held in the Museum's vast collections so that they may be made available for exhibition, education, scholarship, and study.
Photograph conservators not only treat damaged and deteriorated works but also examine, document, and analyze them, recommend proper storage and housing, and monitor environmental conditions.
Scientists in the department cooperate with conservators and curators in studying, preserving, and conserving the works in the Museum's collections, and also pursue innovative research in analytical techniques, preventive conservation, and treatment methodologies.
Major projects of the Department of Textile Conservation include the conservation of the collections' highlights, the preparation and handling of textiles for exhibitions, and participation in the Museum excavation program in Egypt.
